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George W. Bush on Bush-Hatred

November 12, 2010 by B. Daniel Blatt

When former President George W. Bush’s memoir, Decision Points, arrived the other day, I started reading it almost right away.  And while the style may be kind of staccato, even sterile, the book is a good and easy read.  Yesterday, when I couldn’t focus on much at home, I took it with me when I set off to a local Starbucks and in an act surely subversive in Los Angeles read it out in the open.

I get the sense in watching this good man in his various television appearances promoting the book that he is a man at peace.  He doesn’t agonize over his legacy or feel the need to demonize his successor or his critics, the latter who are legion.  He has been attacked more viciously than have been some of his predecessors more worthy of reprimand and endured insults his critics wouldn’t level against enemies of our nation, yet he takes it all in stride.  Or at least appears to.  He just brushes it off, as if par for the course.

When, in his book, he does address such criticism, he puts it in historical context:

The shrill debate never affected my decisions.  I read a lot of history, and I was struck by how many presidents had endured harsh criticism.  The measure of their character, and often their success, was how they responded.

By this standard, he is a man of sterling character.  He acknowledges that some suggested he “should have pushed back harder against the caricatures.”  But, he believes would have debased the presidency “to stoop to the critics’ levels.”

Advice to all of us, particularly those in the political arena, who experience the slings and arrows of outrageous attacks.

Filed Under: Bush-hatred

Comments

  1. ILoveCapitalism says

    November 12, 2010 at 3:00 pm - November 12, 2010

    Bush was good at certain things: chiefly “keeping it together” in a critical time, a time of war; showing grace and good sense, being a friend to our troops.

    On the other hand – he signed a lot of bad bills, as regards domestic policy. Truly an interesting character.

  2. Bobbie says

    November 12, 2010 at 6:28 pm - November 12, 2010

    “and in an act surely subversive in Los Angeles read it out in the open.”

    Love this line!

    You’re a man after my own heart since this is something I’d go out of my WAY to do.

  3. B. Daniel Blatt says

    November 12, 2010 at 8:43 pm - November 12, 2010

    Bobbie, are you single?

  4. ThatGayConservative says

    November 12, 2010 at 10:49 pm - November 12, 2010

    But, he believes would have debased the presidency “to stoop to the critics’ levels.”

    Unlike a certain Chump in Chief we have.

  5. Blair Ivey says

    November 13, 2010 at 6:48 am - November 13, 2010

    I’ve heard George Bush in interviews and he seems like a man comfortable with himself. He did his job , even when that job had sudden and violent dislocations thrust upon him. He volunteered. Let us not be too quick to judgment or too harsh in treatment before he tells his side.

    Blair Ivey

  6. Auntie Dogma says

    November 13, 2010 at 7:47 am - November 13, 2010

    The right never hates. Do they, Ma’am.

  7. ILoveCapitalism says

    November 13, 2010 at 8:19 am - November 13, 2010

    Well well well… Clinton (implicitly) tells Bush-haters to mellow out: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45034.html

  8. ILoveCapitalism says

    November 13, 2010 at 8:50 am - November 13, 2010

    I bet AD seriously thinks that 1) changing the subject 2) by injecting a straw man, is clever.

    It is two tactics in one. But so old… zzzzzz…

  9. Heliotrope says

    November 13, 2010 at 9:37 am - November 13, 2010

    Dogma Auntie,

    The “right” is made up of free thinking individuals. It would be remarkable if the right didn’t have at least one person who has succumbed to the energy sapping waste of hatred. However, it would not be accurate to think that the right is free of principles which are so important to them that they would risk life and limb to protect them. You might say that the right “hates” ignorance, criminality, sloth, communism, waywardness spawned by lack of principle, and other such vices and attributes of laziness and cowardice.

    So, Dogma Auntie, do you believe your leftie cabal is equally committed to social engineering that you could arouse a band of socialist patriots that would meet us at the bridge in order to force your vision of the future down our throats with fervor enough to die for it?

    On the right I see TEA Parties girding their principles. On the left I see rent-a-mobs carrying manufactured signs, thumping their chests, mocking the right and standing by as hooligans bust windows and chant about communism, the death of capitalism and the new world order and then fade into the woodwork until the next demonstration is called.

    At some point in some place the cops are going to herd these G-20 type punks and brown shirts into an ever tightening ring of foaming, cursing, brick throwing anarchists and pound them to submission.

    What I wonder, Dogma Auntie, is will you be among the punks and brown shirts? Or will you run to their aid? Or will you watch it on TV and seethe and hate and run to a blog and comment?

    Do tell us, Dogma Auntie, what is the stuff of which you are made? Be careful, dear, you mustn’t mess your hair or trip on your layers of of thin veneer.

  10. Mary says

    November 13, 2010 at 9:46 am - November 13, 2010

    I think what p$@@es off the left so much is that fact that Bush lets the “slings and arrows” roll off and into the gutter. He doesn’t react to their vicious attacks and that just grinds them no end. Good for him…the best revenge is to ignore. He is not perfect and certainly followed bad advice with respect to his domestic policy. He was, and is, not a conservative in the true sense of the word. However, his legacy will be his foreign policy, Iraq War notwithstanding. Interestingly, Obama seems to be following Bush’s philosophy (except for Israel). No wonder the Left is so confused by The Enlightened One :))

  11. The_Livewire says

    November 13, 2010 at 9:56 am - November 13, 2010

    I think you have it Mary. When you are full of hatred and vitriol, and an eagerness to be offended, you can’t comprehend anyone not bing that way.

  12. ThatGayConservative says

    November 13, 2010 at 11:02 am - November 13, 2010

    Can there be anything more pathetic that the Huffington Plagiarism accusing Bush of the same?

    http://biggovernment.com/dloesch/2010/11/12/irony-alert-accused-plagiarist-arianna-huffington-accuses-bush-of-plagiarizing-his-own-words/

  13. ILoveCapitalism says

    November 13, 2010 at 11:22 am - November 13, 2010

    TGC, good one! Yikes.

  14. Davep. says

    November 13, 2010 at 3:04 pm - November 13, 2010

    I’ll disagree. By remaining aloof and not responding, President Bush abandoned the media battlespace to the enemy- which is why we’re still hearing nonsense like “Bush lied” and “slow response on Katrina” and seeing revisionary propaganda like “Fair Game” two years after the man has left office.
    It’s also (in part) why we ended up with President Barack Obama.
    It takes truth to displace lies, and President Bush thought that defending himself from lies was beneath him.

  15. North Dallas Thirty says

    November 13, 2010 at 3:05 pm - November 13, 2010

    Can there be anything more pathetic that the Huffington Plagiarism accusing Bush of the same?

    Yes. Rob Tisinai whining about Republicans who he claims don’t believe in “peer reviewed studies”, and then banning people who dare criticize the God-King Obama for altering and lying about scientific studies to push a political agenda. 🙂

  16. North Dallas Thirty says

    November 13, 2010 at 5:58 pm - November 13, 2010

    Or the God-King Obama suddenly whining that earmarks “support worthy projects” after insisting they were the devil’s own and “banning” them two years ago.

    We can’t expect Obama or his supporters like the Huffington Post, Levi, Countervail, and Rob Tisinai to act rationally or intelligently at this point. He is the God-King, and they are his dutiful followers, who will be racists if they dare question or criticize His diktats.

  17. Ben says

    November 13, 2010 at 8:27 pm - November 13, 2010

    Buy a book – offend leftists! Sounds like a good deal – just ordered my copy.

    It always strikes me how “smart liberals” demonized Bush. A dumb idiot who masterminded numerous international conspiracies? Right.

  18. Davep. says

    November 14, 2010 at 8:28 am - November 14, 2010

    Ben, that’s where the hatred of Karl Rove came from: Bush was a monkey, but he kept on beating all the Smart Kids pantsless… therefore someone MUST be pulling his strings…

    Mwuhaha.

  19. Levi says

    November 14, 2010 at 8:37 am - November 14, 2010

    Bush is still as pathetic as ever, refusing to take responsibility for running the country into the ground, still desperately clinging to the delusion that history will vindicate him. It’s incredible watching him being so terrificly stupid on the TV these past few days, it’s a wonder that any of us have jobs at all. What is there to like about this man?

  20. The_Livewire says

    November 14, 2010 at 8:44 am - November 14, 2010

    Well let’s see, he doesn’t lie, he says what he believes, he feels everyone, including Arabs yearn to be free. He admits he’s human and therefore flawed,he’s a man of faith…

    Oh, I see why you can’t understand why people still like him. He’s not a racist lying socialist like you.

  21. Eric Olsen says

    November 14, 2010 at 8:46 am - November 14, 2010

    What is there to like about this man?

    Plenty, but first and foremost is that the mention of his name drives you into fits of apoplectic moonbat rage. 🙂

    Always entertaining to watch. 🙂

  22. Levi says

    November 14, 2010 at 9:30 am - November 14, 2010

    Plenty, but first and foremost is that the mention of his name drives you into fits of apoplectic moonbat rage.

    Always entertaining to watch.

    Why bother responding just to say absolutely nothing at all? I could say the same thing about your reaction to Obama, couldn’t I?

  23. The_Livewire says

    November 14, 2010 at 9:33 am - November 14, 2010

    Why bother responding just to say absolutely nothing at all?

    We ask the same question about you, quite often.

    but hey, you’ll ignore this post like you do every other post when you get crucified by facts.

  24. JadedByPolitics says

    November 14, 2010 at 9:42 am - November 14, 2010

    When he allowed the supposed MSM to set the narrative he not only weakened himself he weakened the party and the Country. I went to counter protest the anti-war protesters (where are they btw, oh yeah it was political) and if he had taken a moment to let the American public know who was speaking in their name against the war perhaps the tide would not have turned so badly. He truly did not defend himself enough.

  25. Eric Olsen says

    November 14, 2010 at 9:57 am - November 14, 2010

    Why bother responding just to say absolutely nothing at all?

    Because your delicious rage is precisely the sort of thing I relish on a chilly Sunday morning.

    I could say the same thing about your reaction to Obama, couldn’t I?

    You could, were it not for the fact that Bush neither bowed before foreign leaders, nor had the audacity to tell the American public that “at some point, you’ve made enough money.”

  26. Quo Vadis? says

    November 14, 2010 at 10:23 am - November 14, 2010

    Why bother responding just to say absolutely nothing at all?

    Who bother commenting on a gay conservative blog just to reiterate your disdain for everything the owner believes in?

  27. Levi says

    November 14, 2010 at 11:00 am - November 14, 2010

    You could, were it not for the fact that Bush neither bowed before foreign leaders, nor had the audacity to tell the American public that “at some point, you’ve made enough money.”

    lol, those are your examples? Bush started two wars that have killed thousands of Americans and untold numbers of women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you’re suggesting that it’s more rational to loathe the President that momentarily bowed to some foreign dignitary?

  28. Eric Olsen says

    November 14, 2010 at 11:07 am - November 14, 2010

    And just like that, Levi launches into the same seething, self-righteous, obfuscating, fact-deficient rage with which the left dives into whenever a contrary opinion dares to raise it’s inferior head…

    Levi asks why bother to respond to his comment when first challenged, then when confronted only once more, proves my theory.

    You simply cannot argue with these poeple. Given the biggest opportunity to cement the progressive agenda in American history, they not only prove incompetent in accomplishing anything, but thoroughly unable to garner enough votes to even give them any sort of validation.

  29. The_Livewire says

    November 14, 2010 at 1:46 pm - November 14, 2010

    Eric, also note how he retreats back into his lies of “Bush started two wars.” Apparently he thinks that 9/11 didn’t justify any response. He doesn’t think violation of a cease fire was reason enough to resume hostilities, and he doesn’t think brown people can handle democracy. It is amazing how much bile and hatred he can spew out.

  30. ThatGayConservative says

    November 14, 2010 at 5:49 pm - November 14, 2010

    What is there to like about this man?

    For one thing, he loves this country unlike our Chump in Chief.

    Bush started two wars that have killed thousands of Americans and untold numbers of women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan,

    Wilson got us into WWI. FDR got us into WWII. Kennedy got us into Vietnam. How many millions of Americans, women and children were killed in those ventures?

    Oh, Google “Operation Keelhaul” sometime and get back to us.

  31. Levi says

    November 14, 2010 at 6:21 pm - November 14, 2010

    And just like that, Levi launches into the same seething, self-righteous, obfuscating, fact-deficient rage with which the left dives into whenever a contrary opinion dares to raise it’s inferior head…

    Levi asks why bother to respond to his comment when first challenged, then when confronted only once more, proves my theory.

    I asked why you responded because you clearly had nothing to say – just some mindless and generic your-side-is-lame-and-my-side-is-great recess level taunt. Very interesting, those, and I’ll definitely be on the lookout for more of your wonderful contributions!

    You simply cannot argue with these poeple. Given the biggest opportunity to cement the progressive agenda in American history, they not only prove incompetent in accomplishing anything, but thoroughly unable to garner enough votes to even give them any sort of validation.

    I completely agree that Obama is terribly incompetent and has squandered probably the best political landscape for liberals in generations. This isn’t the fault of people like me, who have been disappointed with the majority of Obama’s moves since the general election. The failure of Obama to solidify Democratic majorities and to pass his agenda is his and his alone – as a politician he just cannot compete with his Republican adversaries. Liberalism hasn’t sunk Obama because Obama never really tried liberalism.

  32. Levi says

    November 14, 2010 at 6:28 pm - November 14, 2010

    For one thing, he loves this country unlike our Chump in Chief.

    Okay, like where do you get this crap from? How do you know the current President hates our country, and how do you know that Bush loves it? Is there some standard you’re using to make these kinds of judgments or are you just spouting here?

    Do you think I hate the United States? Are you capable of recognizing the difference between criticism and hatred?

    Wilson got us into WWI. FDR got us into WWII. Kennedy got us into Vietnam. How many millions of Americans, women and children were killed in those ventures?

    Oh, Google “Operation Keelhaul” sometime and get back to us.

    You know, it’s possible to believe that this war is stupid without believing that all wars are stupid. Vietnam was definitely a waste of an effort, and the fact that we went through that nightmare so recently only makes our current bungling in the Middle East that much more foolish. But those other wars were important and worth fighting.

    It isn’t simply a measure of how many people are sacrificed and how much money is spent, it’s how worthwhile is the objective? Based on that, there’s absolutely no comparison between the war in Iraq, which has been demonstrably counterproductive to our strategic interests, and the other engagements you listed.

  33. North Dallas Thirty says

    November 14, 2010 at 8:58 pm - November 14, 2010

    Do you think I hate the United States? Are you capable of recognizing the difference between criticism and hatred?

    I think Merle Haggard’s lyrics in “Fightin’ Side of Me” sum Levi and his fellow “progressives” up perfectly.

    I hear people talkin’ bad,
    About the way we have to live here in this country,
    Harpin’ on the wars we fight,
    An’ gripin’ ’bout the way things oughta be.

    Even more precisely:

    They love our milk an’ honey,
    But they preach about some other way of livin’.

    Bluntly put, Levi and his fellow “progressives” sit here and live off the wealth of the country while whining and complaining about and tearing down the people and what created that wealth in the first place.

    They’re nothing more than spoiled teenagers. And the reason they throw screaming hissy fits over any cuts to the government is because they look at it as akin to their parents — something that exists solely to do whatever they demand, give them as much money as they want, bail them out of any trouble into which they get, and essentially enable them to have every piece of junk they want without having to lift a finger to get it.

    When you cut government spending, Levi and his fellow “progressives” hear, “Get your lazy ass off the couch and get a job.” The problem is, this time, the people telling them that are not their parents and will not give in to their screaming tantrum fits.

  34. V the K says

    November 14, 2010 at 9:56 pm - November 14, 2010

    Are you capable of recognizing the difference between criticism and hatred?

    Here’s the thing. If a guy told me he loved his wife, but all he ever did was complain about how she was too fat and too dumb … and how his objective was to change every single thing about her so she would be thin and sophisticated like those European ladies he openly lusted after … I’d suspect he didn’t really love his wife too much.

    And if, for example, he wanted to blow a bunch of money on something stupid, like a new bass boat (stimulus) or investing in a worm farm (health care)… and his wife begged him not to spend the money because they couldn’t afford it, but he went ahead and did it anyway… I’d suspect he didn’t really respect his wife’s opinion very much.

    So, no, based on the available evidence, I don’t think Obama, Bill Maher, or the rest of the Democrats really love America very much.

  35. The_Livewire says

    November 15, 2010 at 6:45 am - November 15, 2010

    Note how Levi *still* won’t say how President Bush ‘got us into two wars’.

    Now as to President Obama, we can take his wife’s words about how ‘for the first time, she was proud of her country’ as a sign of how she feels about America. We can take the President’s inability to quote the Declairation of Independence as how little he appriciates America. We can take his feelings about ‘making enough money’ about how he feels about a free society. We can look to his AG for views on race in America. We can take his whining about Fox News as to how he feels about a free press, one of the corner stones of the free republic. We can take his actions to having his policies blow up in his face as how he feels about a free society.

    I know I know, there I go again, using the President’s own words against him. i’m sure the racist coward Levi will ignore them, just like he tries to ignore when his own words are used against him.

  36. Levi says

    November 15, 2010 at 9:00 am - November 15, 2010

    Here’s the thing. If a guy told me he loved his wife, but all he ever did was complain about how she was too fat and too dumb … and how his objective was to change every single thing about her so she would be thin and sophisticated like those European ladies he openly lusted after … I’d suspect he didn’t really love his wife too much.

    And if, for example, he wanted to blow a bunch of money on something stupid, like a new bass boat (stimulus) or investing in a worm farm (health care)… and his wife begged him not to spend the money because they couldn’t afford it, but he went ahead and did it anyway… I’d suspect he didn’t really respect his wife’s opinion very much.

    So, no, based on the available evidence, I don’t think Obama, Bill Maher, or the rest of the Democrats really love America very much

    It’s not at all surprising that such a juvenile accusation is supported by such juvenile reasoning. I support different legislative priorities than the Republican party, ergo I hate America! Is there anything intrinsically anti-American about a stimulus package or healthcare reform? Policies whose intentions are to put Americans back to work and to reign in out-of-control healthcare costs are somehow, fundamentally anti-American? You can disagree with the efficacy of those programs, but to accuse their authors of hating the country? That’s just stupid.

    I think that conservatives are morons – I don’t have to walk around pretending like they hate America. I think you guys are doing the best that you can given your corporate and religious brainwashing. Don’t pretend like you don’t want to make changes to this country as well.

    Final thought; Obama and Maher are men of means that would have no trouble moving to one of these European countries you think they’re so enamored with, so why don’t they? Why would incredibly wealthy America-haters choose to live in the country that they hate so much?

  37. The_Livewire says

    November 15, 2010 at 9:20 am - November 15, 2010

    Hush Levi, adults are talking here. Please try bringing facts and proof. All you’re bringing is ‘Liberals are smarter than Conservatives’ again. Planning to drag us kicking and screaming into your future, much?

  38. V the K says

    November 15, 2010 at 9:54 am - November 15, 2010

    Here’s a lefty blogger at DailyKos saying “The American Dream is worse than AIDS.” Just another lefty, lovin’ his country I suppose.

  39. V the K says

    November 15, 2010 at 10:03 am - November 15, 2010

    Why would incredibly wealthy America-haters choose to live in the country that they hate so much?

    This is like asking, “Why does the Westboro Baptist Church protest at soldier’s funerals and not at the Folsom Street Fair?” Or, “Why do liberals demand higher taxes on everyone else, but refuse to pay more than they are legally obligated to?” Most people will only posture up until the point where there is a genuine price to be paid.

  40. North Dallas Thirty says

    November 15, 2010 at 10:21 am - November 15, 2010

    Exactly, V the K. Michelle Obama is ashamed of and hates the US, but is baseline intelligent enough to know that this is the only place with enough dumb, wasteful liberals to pay her $300k per year to be Vice President of Blame Whitey.

    Same with Maher. If he went overseas, he might actually need to be intelligent and relevant; far easier to sit here in the US and take the money that Levi and his ilk throw in a crazed frenzy at anyone who bashes Bush.

  41. Levi says

    November 15, 2010 at 10:40 am - November 15, 2010

    This is like asking, “Why does the Westboro Baptist Church protest at soldier’s funerals and not at the Folsom Street Fair?” Or, “Why do liberals demand higher taxes on everyone else, but refuse to pay more than they are legally obligated to?” Most people will only posture up until the point where there is a genuine price to be paid.

    So you’re saying that they only pretend to hate America because it’s a part they’re playing on TV? You’re suggesting that they secretly really like it here and only hate America because they’re attention whores? Doesn’t that completely refute your original argument that they hate America?

    And again, the proof that you’re citing is that they support making changes to our healthcare system, which is by orders of magnitude the most expensive in the world and that produces some of the worst results in western countries?

    And since everyone has dodged this so far, I’ll ask again; do I hate America? Not liberals, not Democrats, not Nancy Pelosi or Bill Maher, but me, Levi. Do I hate this country?

  42. Heliotrope says

    November 15, 2010 at 10:53 am - November 15, 2010

    Levi @ #19 asks a question following a conclusion. Here is the question:

    What is there to like about this man? (George W. Bush)

    But, here is the conclusion upon which the question is asked:

    It’s incredible watching him being so terrificly stupid on the TV these past few days, it’s a wonder that any of us have jobs at all.

    Levi tells us that George W. Bush is “so terrificly (sic) stupid” and then asks rhetorically “what is like about this man?

    In other words, Levi has just dropped in to talk to himself. Here are the reasons Levi finds George W. Bush “so terrificly (sic) stupid”:

    + refusing to take responsibility for running the country into the ground

    + still desperately clinging to the delusion that history will vindicate him

    + Bush started two wars that have killed thousands of Americans and untold numbers of women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan

    + the war in Iraq, which has been demonstrably counterproductive to our strategic interests

    + I think that conservatives are morons –

    + I don’t have to walk around pretending like they hate America. I think you guys are doing the best that you can given your corporate and religious brainwashing.

    And that’s the way it is. Levi has his mind made up about many things and he comes here, to talk to the morons and grow increasingly frustrated with how moronic the morons are.

    So, here is the true Levi: (he put the second paragraph first in his comment at #31. I have reversed them for logical clarity.)

    I completely agree that Obama is terribly incompetent and has squandered probably the best political landscape for liberals in generations. This isn’t the fault of people like me, who have been disappointed with the majority of Obama’s moves since the general election. The failure of Obama to solidify Democratic majorities and to pass his agenda is his and his alone – as a politician he just cannot compete with his Republican adversaries. Liberalism hasn’t sunk Obama because Obama never really tried liberalism.

    You simply cannot argue with these poeple. Given the biggest opportunity to cement the progressive agenda in American history, they not only prove incompetent in accomplishing anything, but thoroughly unable to garner enough votes to even give them any sort of validation.

    There you have Levi in a nutshell.

    Levi and his band of left-wingers can not “garner enough votes to even give them any sort of validation” which is Levispeak for saying they keep getting their clocks cleaned.

    “…the best political landscape for liberals in generations…” is Levispeak for “dragging America kicking and screaming into the future.”

    Levi has no hope of heaven. Levi has no hope of a democratic decision for socialist utopia. Levi has no hope of state control of the economy and the imposition of social justice. Levi is hopeless. So, he comes here to talk to the morons.

  43. V the K says

    November 15, 2010 at 11:00 am - November 15, 2010

    Doesn’t that completely refute your original argument that they hate America?

    They hate America, but they love money and attention more.

    As for your other (asinine) question, the question is, if you do love America, why do you push to eliminate its uniquely American characteristics life free enterprise and self-sufficiency? To say, “I love America, but I would love it more with a centrally planned economy and an cradle to grave welfare state” (the “progressive agenda” you so adore) is an oxymoron.

    More significantly, no one need ever question whether I, Heliotrope, or ND30 loves America.

  44. North Dallas Thirty says

    November 15, 2010 at 11:00 am - November 15, 2010

    Again, Levi, I have no doubt that Michelle and Barack Obama, Bill Maher, and the vast and overwhelming majority of liberal celebrities do hold the United States in contempt and hate it.

    But they hate the thought of the lifestyles they would have under the socialist systems they glorify even more.

    What they would much rather do is impose their socialist nirvana here in the US where they could exempt themselves from having to follow it.

  45. North Dallas Thirty says

    November 15, 2010 at 11:23 am - November 15, 2010

    The fact that Levi’s “progressive” icons like Sean Penn endorse and support Venezuela and Cuba’s economic systems should tell you all about what they want to make of the United States, with them as the nomenklatura.

  46. Heliotrope says

    November 15, 2010 at 12:04 pm - November 15, 2010

    When you obsess on something or someone to the point or being irrational, you have hatred. Olbermann is a fascinating example of what irrational hatred looks and sounds like. Matthews occasionally gets to the fringes of hatred when his frustration so overtakes his sense of logic that he sputters and spits. Stewart (who hates his Jewish name and, perhaps, his Jewish heritage) and Maher have developed a slick repartee of insult and belittlement as an uncivil way of controlling the dialog. That is a ploy that can lead to disdain and embitterment and ultimately hatred. When you do not care to assess the points of counter point, but instead you insist on trouncing your adversary with something other than reason, you may become a hater.

    Hatred is debilitating. It is off putting. It makes the hater look inane.

    Bush-hatred is a syndrome. Bush-haters congregate and chortle and high five and find warm company in one another. What they do not do is base their frustrations in fact. They eschew substance for intensity of feelings.

    There is seemingly no way that Olbermann, for instance, could read Bush’s book and have anything approaching an epiphany. He and other haters belong to the ChimpHitlerMoron school of objective analysis. Once the ironclad theory of Bush as Destructive Idiot has been affirmed by a consensus of like minded people, the “facts” are clear.

    On the other hand, it is possible to “hate” an ideology. My daughter went out this morning to block the area where the Phelps people had a permit to demonstrate the funeral of a 19 year old serviceman. She took a US flag that is nearly 20 feet long and held up by bamboo poles. Fire departments showed up with trucks to block the street from the sidewalks and protect the funeral procession. The Phelps people were left three blocks behind. Unfortunately, when the Phelps folk returned to their van, their tires were flat. No service in town would help them. Finally, AAA towed them to a cooperating tire service.

    The point is that hating left wing socialism or Phelps type intransigency is quite different from hating Rush Limbaugh or George W. Bush or Fox News. When you can pin-point your high powered dislike (hatred) for abortion, genocide, state controlled social justice, arson, radical Islam, bigotry, etc., you have the power to argue your case. When your hatred is based on a visceral dislike that is intensely felt, but has no arguable points of fact, you are simply possessed by demons of your own making.

  47. Tom the Redhunter says

    November 15, 2010 at 9:52 pm - November 15, 2010

    Dead right, Danie, he is a man of sterling character

    Agree or disagree with their policies, George W Bush and his father are class acts through and through.

    Sadly, this cannot be said for any Democrat president since John F Kennedy.

  48. Michigan-Matt says

    November 16, 2010 at 2:30 pm - November 16, 2010

    Tom, nicely said… but of course, for some in the threads, Bush 41’s and Bush 43’s policies on 2-3 issues make them sell-outs, fake conservatives, RINOs, worthy of scorn usually reserved for the midnight cockroach invading the cereal box. Or, God forbid, “Elites” or “GOP Establishment” labeling.

    Like Karen Hughes said earlier this week, you ought to admire Bush 43 for the tough decisions he made that were politically contrary to conventional wisdom –like the Iraq surge or TARP. Beating up on radical Islamic terrorists is the easy stuff… waterboarding a highly prized terrorist is even easier… the Bush Tax Cuts were relatively easy… it’s the go-against-conventional-wisdom decision points Bush 43 made that makes him worthy of greater respect.

    I’m afraid for some, in 30 yrs the Left and Bush detractors will find something like Ford’s Whip Inflation Now program as fodder for derision and marginalizing a great president… maybe that will be the Left’s version of the Mission Accomplished” banner.

    (BTW, the Bush Center will have that banner displayed above a mock aircraft carrier deck complete with a pair of FA-18 Supers and T-41As.)

  49. Levi says

    November 17, 2010 at 8:43 am - November 17, 2010

    They hate America, but they love money and attention more.

    Would you listen to yourself? They hate the country that enriches them and makes their lifestyle possible – I mean how can you actually believe this crap? I’ve heard Bill Maher say more than once that he loves America and doesn’t want to live anywhere else, and you’d have me believe that he doesn’t really mean that because he thinks some changes need to be made to how we deliver healthcare? You’re insane.

    As for your other (asinine) question, the question is, if you do love America, why do you push to eliminate its uniquely American characteristics life free enterprise and self-sufficiency?

    Of course, no liberals in this country are pushing to eliminate free enterprise and self-sufficiency. I’m sure the tendency around here is for you guys to believe that I live in my welfare-collecting parents’ basement or something, the truth is that I use government services no more or less than any of you. 40% of my income is commission – and you think I want to get rid of free enterprise? I’m going to be 100% debt free in 4-6 months, and a few years ago when I didn’t have a job and was eligible for unemployment checks, I chose not to because I had enough in savings – and you think I’m not self-sufficient?

    I’m a capitalist through and through. I just don’t subscribe to the conservative cult of capitalism, where everyone is supposed to pretend that it’s a perfect economic system where there is absolutely no excess or abuse, and where the government is responsible for everything bad. I’m capable of understanding the importance of a regulated private sector and a restrained public sector in the 21st century. I don’t buy into discredited big business propaganda about tax cuts for the wealthy creating jobs and the eager willingness of industries to self-regulate. Capitalism is great, but it needs a referee.

    To say, “I love America, but I would love it more with a centrally planned economy and an cradle to grave welfare state” (the “progressive agenda” you so adore) is an oxymoron.

    I don’t know what’s so wrong about a little central planning. Someone needs to be looking out for the collective, and it certainly isn’t going to be the industries whose only concern is pulling the economy in their direction it increase their quarterly report by a few percentage points. Compared to the rest of the developed world, the average American is less intelligent, they are overweight, they don’t live as long, and they are overworked – and all of those disparities are getting worse. Do you think that companies like Pepsi and McDonald’s and Exxon Mobil are interested in reversing those trends, or continuing them? This is what the government is for – and before your brainwashing kicks in and makes you think I’m talking about forced exercise and vegetable-eating, all I’m saying is that we will continue to decline if we don’t have an entity in American life that is concerned with the general welfare of the citizenry and not exclusively with the profit margins of some company.

    More significantly, no one need ever question whether I, Heliotrope, or ND30 loves America.

    I wouldn’t question whether or not you dopes love America because I don’t feel an aching need to cast all of you as anti-American subversives who are actively plotting to take down the country – you guys apparently do. It reeks of insecurity and desperation. Again, I don’t doubt that you love America, I just think you’re too brainwashed to recognize how terribly conservative prescriptions have been performing over the past few decades. Now go plug into Rush so he can let you know how much of a Communist welfare-queen I am!

  50. Levi says

    November 17, 2010 at 9:15 am - November 17, 2010

    When you obsess on something or someone to the point or being irrational, you have hatred. Olbermann is a fascinating example of what irrational hatred looks and sounds like.

    Ooh boy, let me clip this garbage right here. The ‘obsessive’ Kieth Olbermann has a nightly show – he’s on five hours a week. What does that make Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Sean Hannity, who have a similar TV schedule as Olbermann? Add in Rush Limbaugh and each of their 3-hour long radio programs, and they’re on the air for almost 20 hours a week apiece. Who is obsessing?

    Matthews occasionally gets to the fringes of hatred when his frustration so overtakes his sense of logic that he sputters and spits. Stewart (who hates his Jewish name and, perhaps, his Jewish heritage)

    Uh…… what? This is ostensibly a rant about people hating irrationally, and you’re just casually accusing people of being self-hating hypocrites? Look in the mirror bozo.

    and Maher have developed a slick repartee of insult and belittlement as an uncivil way of controlling the dialog. That is a ploy that can lead to disdain and embitterment and ultimately hatred. When you do not care to assess the points of counter point, but instead you insist on trouncing your adversary with something other than reason, you may become a hater.

    Hatred is debilitating. It is off putting. It makes the hater look inane.

    Bush-hatred is a syndrome. Bush-haters congregate and chortle and high five and find warm company in one another. What they do not do is base their frustrations in fact. They eschew substance for intensity of feelings.

    I don’t see anybody going around hating George Bush simply because he’s George Bush. I don’t like Bush because he implemented a bunch of terrible policies that have had very negative consequences for the country. The Iraq war has been completely counterproductive and far too costly, that isn’t a fact? Torture policies have ruined our credibility as a country committed to freedom and human rights, that isn’t a fact? Bush’s supposedly inspired tax cuts for the rich should have allowed the economy to take off, and the facts are that they clearly haven’t. And you’re suggesting my dislike is based on my feelings towards Bush, and not on the facts of his terrible policies?

    I suppose the tea partiers, who trade in facts like “Obama is spending $200 million a day in India!”, “Obama is a Muslim!”, “Obama is committed to black liberation theology!”, “Obama is a socialist!”, and “Obama is the real racist!” cannot be said to be basing those statements on their feelings about Obama, right?

    There is seemingly no way that Olbermann, for instance, could read Bush’s book and have anything approaching an epiphany. He and other haters belong to the ChimpHitlerMoron school of objective analysis. Once the ironclad theory of Bush as Destructive Idiot has been affirmed by a consensus of like minded people, the “facts” are clear.

    Of course, Bush is going to give the most Bush-friendly accounting of his own presidency – why should I expect to have an epiphany? I spent 8 years watching George Bush fail his way through the presidency, and I spent 8 years listening to him trying to explain himself, but I’m supposed to be convinced all of a sudden? That’s an absurd expectation.

    On the other hand, it is possible to “hate” an ideology. My daughter went out this morning to block the area where the Phelps people had a permit to demonstrate the funeral of a 19 year old serviceman. She took a US flag that is nearly 20 feet long and held up by bamboo poles. Fire departments showed up with trucks to block the street from the sidewalks and protect the funeral procession. The Phelps people were left three blocks behind. Unfortunately, when the Phelps folk returned to their van, their tires were flat. No service in town would help them. Finally, AAA towed them to a cooperating tire service.

    The point is that hating left wing socialism or Phelps type intransigency is quite different from hating Rush Limbaugh or George W. Bush or Fox News. When you can pin-point your high powered dislike (hatred) for abortion, genocide, state controlled social justice, arson, radical Islam, bigotry, etc., you have the power to argue your case. When your hatred is based on a visceral dislike that is intensely felt, but has no arguable points of fact, you are simply possessed by demons of your own making.

    Well gee, do you think that I’m surprised that you’re appraising yourself so generously? Of course it’s you who is so high-minded and non-judgmental, you just hate bad ideas….. while I am of course some monster that irrationally hates Bush. It isn’t possible that I hate policies that advocate for war and torture, and it isn’t possible that I hate the idea of letting industries write their own legislation – I just hate people for no good reason. It doesn’t matter that the tea party is making explicitly racial attacks on Barack Obama, it is I who am the bigot because I consider elevated conservative leaders with records of abject failure like George Bush and Sarah Palin to be dumber than third-graders. Who would have thought?

  51. The_Livewire says

    November 17, 2010 at 9:30 am - November 17, 2010

    *yawn* So now Levi’s a capitalist? Really. Given that he was telling us about all the non-existant successful socialist countries, I doubt he is a capitalist.

    Tell me Levi… Who provides your health insurance, Verizon? So at least one of those “industries whose only concern is pulling the economy in their direction it increase their quarterly report by a few percentage points” is providing benefits that they don’t need to.

    Central planning? Name one social program that’s successful. You slinked away like the coward you are last time you tried to point to Medicare/Medicaid as an example. You were shredded there so I’ll just link instead of repeating myself.

    Your biggest fear is that you think you’re so enlightened that the rules don’t apply to you. You want to ‘limit everyone’s freedoms’ for the good of the social contract. Congratulations, you’ve just supported the patriot act, and Prop 8. You don’t believe in the basis of the Republic, that some parts of the constution (and some animals) are more important than others. You beleive that people have the right to self govern, only if you approve of the reason.

    You’re an admitted racist and socialist Levi, believing you support the free market is like trying to believe I’m a member of the Sweedish Bikini team. It just isn’t happening.

    Best of all, you’re a coward. If you honestly believed corporations were evil as you say above, you’d not be working for one. If you honestly believed that EIT was torture, you’d be filing charges. If you honestly beleived that you’re smarter than everyone else, you’d be running for office, not asking people who come in to your store if they’d like to upgrade their phones.

    Now hush. Adults are talking here.

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